Why Rose Ann Gave Up Her Kids A Frustrated Foster Mother Turns In Her License In Defeat -- But Not Before She Fires Off A 15-page Letter To The Governor Blasting The Hrs

September 15, 1991|BY VICKI McCASH

A YEAR AFTER IT`S OVER, ROSE ANN Morrical sits at her kitchen table and stares at stacks of paper: diaries, unpaid bills, receipts, letters, court documents.

``You never know what it`s like until you get in the middle of it,`` she says. She shakes her head and absentmindedly sifts through the piles of paper. ``But you can`t just close your eyes and walk away.``

You wouldn`t think anything could stop Rose Ann Morrical. At 6 feet 4 inches, she is an imposing figure with broad shoulders that fill a doorway. She is an woman easy to lean on, and many have.

``That woman could take on the world,`` says the grandmother of a child Rose Ann once knew. ``There have been times when I would call her just to cry.``

But behind Rose Ann`s gray-green eyes are the signs of lasting pain and frustration.

``I`m a pretty tough old broad,`` she says. ``But this time I`m whipped.``

Rose Ann, 40, let her heart lead her into being a foster parent three years ago. This despite the handicap of living on Social Security disability due to a back injury, which numerous back operations have failed to correct.

But the time seemed right. She had raised a son, Rob, after divorcing her husband and moving to Florida from New Mexico 18 years ago. The thought of another child in her home seemed appealing.

Unfortunately, the problems foster parents in Florida can encounter proved too demoralizing for even this tough woman. She was beaten down by two years of dealing with abandoned and abused kids, their parents and the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

Rose Ann`s experiences, recounted in a 15-page letter she wrote to Gov. Lawton Chiles and state legislators, has prompted internal reviews in the Broward and Dade county HRS districts. The results of those reviews are due out soon, but officials are not encouraging about any quick-fix solutions.

``We`re always looking for ways for improve things,`` says Loretta Duvall, director of Broward`s HRS children`s division. ``But some things are beyond our power to change at the local level.``

Foster-parent associations say there are hundreds of foster parents in South Florida who have experienced the nightmare of raising abused foster children. And HRS officials admit that complaints about the system are not unusual.

So, while Rose Ann Morrical`s story is not unique, it raises the question: If this determined woman could not make a go of it, who can?

IT ALL STARTED BACK IN 1979 WHEN ROSE Ann, who lived in Margate, was a guard at Broward Correctional Institution. She would befriend prisoners, then help them to get resettled after their release. She meant to change their lives -- until two ex-cons changed hers.

Angel Smith, who is hearing-impaired, could not speak when Rose Ann first met her. She was drug-addicted, a child of the streets, unwanted by her family and overlooked by the agencies that might have helped her. When Angel got out of prison in 1980, Rose Ann took her in. Gradually, Angel learned to talk, found a job and became a part of Rose Ann`s extended family.

Renee Green was Angel`s opposite. She was bright and verbal but returned to the streets every time she got out of prison, despite the help offered by Rose Ann. During one of her periods of freedom, in 1988, Renee got pregnant. The child she gave birth to would make Rose Ann a foster parent for the first time.

Renee, who was living in Tallahassee, called Rose Ann when she was four months` pregnant and needed a place to stay. Ever the soft touch, Rose Ann invited Renee to move in with her.

The two women made the rounds, seeking the government services Renee needed, but were stymied at every turn.

Before long, a frustrated Renee sought solace as she had before, in the buzz of a heroin high.

Her son, Kevin, was born on Nov. 14, 1988, addicted to cocaine and heroin. HRS would have taken the baby away right then, but Renee told the investigator at the hospital that she was living with Rose Ann, and Rose Ann would be responsible for the child.

``Old soft-hearted Hannah that I am, I said yes, and three days later I had this little baby boy in my home,`` Rose Ann recalls.

HRS provided no clothes, no money, no baby formula and no medical training for the addicted infant`s care. All night, and for most of the next few weeks, baby Kevin screamed a high, piercing, inhuman scream -- the scream of withdrawal from drugs.

Renee continued shooting heroin, and her relationship with Rose Ann deteriorated. Then one day in December she took Kevin to live with her 74- year-old aunt in Liberty City, a move Renee says was okayed by HRS. However, HRS supervisors say it is unlikely any worker would have allowed a change of residence under the circumstances.

A week after she moved, Renee was arrested. She had left Kevin with a junkie.

When Rose Ann heard the news, she drove to Liberty City to find the baby.

She failed. ``If you lived in the Miami ghetto, would you come to the door if you saw this big white lady out there?`` she says.